INTERVIEW Dianne Reeves, Forever in the Moment

What happens when you grow up in a family drenched in music? One possibility is that you decide you hate music. Another is that you become jazz darling Dianne Reeves.

Reeves’ unique jazz sound stems in part from a confluence of musical styles that run in her family. She remembers watching her uncle’s hands as he performed in the Denver Symphony Orchestra. She also recalls stories about her two great aunts, who had their own piano-and-vocal act back in the vaudeville days.

Even Reeves’ mother, who wasn’t graced with musical talent, influenced her lifelong yearning to be a singer.

“I would listen to these Longines Symphonettes with her, which were kind of hokey, but, you know, they were cool,” says Reeves. “I kind of grew up in an atmosphere that if you wanted to be in music you could … thank God that that existed [for me].”

After living in New York and Los Angeles, Reeves returned to Denver, where she grew up and went on to study music at the University of Colorado.